If you try and play a pre-owned PlayStation Vita game, you'll get a rather alarming message from Sony. Here's what it says:

"You cannot earn trophies in this application. Only the first player to use an application can earn trophies. To earn trophies, you must link the Sony Entertainment Network account of the first player to use this application with the PS Vita system."

At first, it sounds like a sneaky piece of digital rights management from Sony, which in one fell swoop could cut off CEX, sink eBay, and demolish the pre-owned shelf in your local GAME. Because, if you can't get shiny digital trophies in a game, what's the point in even playing?

All hope is not lost, though. It's actually quite easy to get trophy functionality back in a pre-played game, as long as you know what you're doing. Follow our guide, and you'll be racking up Platinums in no time.

Here's the message you'll get if you try to load a pre-owned game on Vita. Sounds scary, but we'll sort it out in no time. Click 'No' to return to the system's main menu.

We're going to format the pre-played card. To do that, return to the main menu (right) and touch and hold the screen for two seconds. This lets you rearrange icons, set a new background picture, and add more panes to your start screen.

Also, each icon has a little "…" bubble to the top right. This lets you see information on a game, delete unwanted demos, and, most usefully, format pre-played cards.